Sunday, July 14, 2013

Online Education

Howdy! Today we have a guest author at TBR. Welcome Karen!

How Online Education
Affects Individual Students

Online learning has permeated almost every level of
education in one way or another from pre-school aged children to master’s
degree university students. This shift from traditional learning to an online
format offers several benefits but it also can be taxing on individual
students, which is why as educators it is important to understand how the term
“online learning” is implemented at all levels of education as well as the
affect it may have on the individual students we teach.

How Online Education
is Implemented in Pre-K through College Education

Many of us are aware of how online learning is implemented for
college level students (more on that later) but how is this new learning style
applicable to non-college aged learners?

·Pre-K

Many parents have downloaded learning apps to their mobile
devices that educate their toddlers and pre-school aged children in shapes,
numbers and letters, all items that in the past were taught by parents instead
of computers. These programs allow for quick access to learning tools and also
entertain/teach toddlers during an important growth time in their life.

Middle school and high school’s are implementing online
education in several ways including offering entire classes in an online format
for courses that may be held at another school (usually language or technical
trade classes such as French or animation), repurposing lessons online for
students who may have missed the class or for group project management. There
are also several home school online learning formats available for students at
all levels of education.

·Universities

University education has slowly migrated towards online
education with some of the nation’s most prestigious universities now offering online
degrees through online
doctoral programs, masters, bachelors and associate programs.This learning format is great for college
students because it offers flexible, cost effective and cohesive learning
solutions through online coursework with a wide array of resources available.
But regardless of how well-rounded and accepted online education has become the
question of how online learning affects individual students still remains.

Individual Growth and
Development through Online Education

There have been numerous studies conducted to enlighten parents,
educators and students on the benefits and disadvantages of online education.
The majority of those studies suggest that online learning offers scheduling
flexibility, cost effectiveness and computer skills but we want to explore how
online education actually affects an individual student. To do this, let’s look
at three student types- all in different levels of education with different
learning needs.

·Student Profile 1: Pre-Kindergarten Student

The timeframe between pre-k and elementary school is a vital
time in a young student’s life as it is a time of growth and key development.
Online education during this time can be convenient for parents and teach core
necessities to young students but it can also create barriers in other aspects
of this learning/developmental phase. Toddlers between the ages of two and five
often learn the most from interaction during this stage of life and while
online learning here requires them to interact with a screen, it can also limit
the interaction with adults and other children, resulting in social ineptitude.
Experts suggest balancing the amount of time a child at this age learns from
online education and from peers as well as adults.

The need to balance education with family, career and
finances can be very stressful for traditional university attendee but online
coursework allows master’s degree students to balance all of these things in a
productive and educational way. Online education provides flexibility in
scheduling, cost-effective solutions (through less travel as well as materials
needed) and an atmosphere of peers to assist one another. All of these things
make online education a wonderful choice for university students in ways that
may have not been applicable to the earlier levels of education.

Online Education for
Your Students

Online learning has
permeated almost every level of education and this shift from traditional
learning to an online format offers several benefits to students of all ages.
But as educators it is important to understand that online learning may not
work well for all students and it is most beneficial for older students who
have surpassed the early developmental stages of their growth. High school and
college students stand to gain the most from online learning while younger
students may do better to balance online learning with traditional methods for
the best educational experience. Have
you had any experience with online learning yourself or with your students? Do
you agree that younger students should have a balance or do you have a
different opinion? Tell us about it in the comments!

About the Author

Karen works as the Online Ambassador for Liberty University Online.During the evening hours her interests lie in
freelance writing, the occasional road trip for a Krystal slider, and finding
opportunities to better her vegetable and fruit garden.

This is a great article. We decided to home-school my son this past year and it has worked out great for him. He was having some trouble in the class room and this new environment really helped him improve his grades. I think when the time comes, he may decided to do online classes for college because he can get all his work done at home. This may be a smart chose for him since he learns better and a smaller home atmosphere.